Activists Document Over 3,000 People Killed in Raqqa in 2017

As many as 3,000 people were killed in the province of Raqqa in military operations and bombings in 2017, said Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently media campaign.

According to figures the media campaign published on Thursday, two thirds of the victims were killed in airstrikes by the US-led coalition forces which support the militia of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the battles against the ISIS extremist group.

The figures indicated that 548 civilians were killed in executions by ISIS militants and in explosions of landmines and booby-traps that were left by militants of the extremist group before they withdrew from Raqqa province. The province is contaminated by an estimated 80,000 landmines, according to demining experts.

The victims also included 149 civilians who the media campaign said were killed in airstrikes the Russia air force conducted to support Assad regime forces during their advance in the eastern and western parts of the province.

More than 5,300 airstrikes hit the province in 2017, 4,504 of which were conducted by the international anti-ISIS coalition, the media campaign added.

The campaign went to say that the bombings in Raqqa caused widespread destruction to civilian homes and infrastructure, with an estimated 80 per cent of the province now reduced to rubble.

In mid-December 2017, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that nearly 1,800 civilians, including 367 women and 548 children, were killed in the bombing campaign by the international coalition in Raqqa province in 2017.

Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently media campaign called for speeding up the demining operations in the province before mines claim more lives of innocent civilians as it called for an impartial international investigation into SDF’s persistent delaying of the operations. (Source: Syrian Coalitions’ Media Department + Inab Baladi Newspaper)